The Content Wrangler
Oops! When Web Forms Disclose Personal Information
October 27, 2009
1 Comment
I received an invitation to download an Adobe sponsored whitepaper by IDG Connect (the self-proclaimed “premier IT knowledge base”). I was interested in the topic, so I clicked on the link provided in the email. As expected, my web browser populated the registration form for me. But, when I looked closer, except for the “email address” field, the rest of the form was populated with someone else’s information.
I asked others to test this form for me, but they were unable to replicate my experience. I don’t have this user’s information on my laptop. I have no idea where it could be coming from.
Anyone have ideas how this might happen?
Form pre-populates with someone else's information
The only reason I can think of is that the URL provided in the email contained parameters with values that matched another subscriber which were used to pre-populate the form — maybe a result of a test URL that hadn’t been fixed before the blast. Had the email been forwarded to you? The form itself is an embedded iframe hosted by Accela Communications, if that offers any clue to the solution.